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Wednesday, September 09, 2020

Vernacular Schools in Malaysia

Malaysia-Today (from FMT):

Vernacular Schools Are An Obstacle To National Unity, Say Experts

Efforts To Make National Schools Suitable For All • UKM News Portal

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) professor Teo Kok Seong, an expert in ethnolinguistics, said vernacular schools were an obstacle to national unity as the majority of children enrolled there were only proficient in their mother tongue.

“The trend is that only the smart ones know Malay and English. The others can only speak their mother tongue,” he told FMT.

I agree and disagree with his remarks. While it's the basic right of every citizen to learn his or her mother tongue, I have to agree that teaching Chinese and non-Chinese children in separate schools represent a huge obstacle to national unity.

The fault lies not so much with the Chinese parents and their preference for their children's primary education because the standard of national type schooling has since 1980-ish became so buruk lah. Chinese have always been particular about education because as I have often written, it's one of the Chinese central cultural pillars. It's Confucian ideology through and through.

Education is the only means by which the very poor in society, especially in Chinese society (more so, Chinese Malaysian society), hope their children will become "Lotuses" - I won't go into what "Lotuses" mean to a Chinese, save to invite you to read my earlier post (published on 08 June 2011), namely: Scholarships.

Girl in lotus pond Photograph by Dung Ma

Thus the remedy (for all Malaysians) is for national type schools to regain their pre 1980 standards to re-assure non-Malay parents that the education standard is once again 'gold'.

Reference again Prof Teo's remarks “The trend ..... English. The others can only speak their mother tongue, I disagree.

Nowadays young Chinese student in (C) vernacular students (as I have observed, in Penang) can't and/or won't speak Penang Hokkien, the mother-tongue of the majority - this could have been due to the strict discipline of vernacular schools in enforcing Mandarin and discouraging mother tongue in school, even with very "strong measures" - I recall my Form II & English teacher (an Indian man with impeccable English) slapping me and Chinese classmates whenever we drifted off into Penang Hokkien, wakakaka).

The brats today speak only Mandarin, even at home - my young nieces and nephews do that with me and I studiously ignored them (because I can't speak good/fluent Mandarin, wakakaka).

I dare say my FB matey Anas Zubedy, and many Malay, Indian, Bhai and Eurasian friends & relatives (yes, I do have relatives among the 4 mentioned communities) speak far far better Penang Hokkien than some vernacular (C) students in Penang do - as mentioned, some of those brats can't.

Thus Mandarin is gradually killing the lingua franca of Penangites, both of Chinese and non-Chinese ethnicities, as it has done to many Chinese non-Mandarin languages in China - not just dialects, as Hokkien, Canto, Teochew, etc are so different from Mandarin that each of them cannot be termed as 'dialects'.

As Paul Jules Antoine Meillet, a Frenchman, was believed to have written: “A language is a dialect with an army and navy”, meaning when a community (race, nation) is powerful enough, its lingua franca becomes a 'language' and thus vice versa (eg. American English is a distinct language and not an Americanised version of British English, and eff the Poms if the Limeys don't like it, wakakaka).

Meillet Antoine.jpg

Paul Jules Antoine Meillet 

And we can see (assume) that China wouldn't be too happy to recognise Hokkien, Canto (especially in Hong Kong), Teochew, etc in the various regions of Chinese as languages, as such linguistic 'sovereignty' may breed unhealthy nationalistic ideas, wakakaka. Thus the Chinese authorities have categorised them as 'dialects' in the same way the Malaysian government deem, as examples, Kelantan and Johor Malay as 'dialects'.

Back to young Penangites in vernacular schools losing their mother tongue (Penang Hokkien, though there are some Penangites whose mother tongues are Teochew (yours truly), Canto, Hainan, Hakka, etc, but we are the 'minorities' in Penang), if there is no significant effort to preserve the continuity-longevity of Penang Hokkien, I predict the Island's so-called mother tongue will be extinct in 30 years time - that's right, in just 30 years time when the young punks (eg. my nieces and nephews) become parents themselves with schooling kids of their own. Mandarin then will become their mother tongue.



19 comments:


  1. Who's Teo Kok Seong?

    In the same class of Paul Jules Antoine Meillet?

    Which r in the same league of Avram Noam Chomsky?

    How about ALL r just looking for what they wanted to see, within their own sopo confinement?

    Language vis-a-vis dialect!

    How about necessity, muscle & convenience defines the differences?

    Think about Latin, a once mighty academic/religious communication tool that has almost disappeared bcoz of modern necessity!

    The dying Latin has totally disproved that underlying notion of “A language is a dialect with an army and navy".

    Language/Dialect is a convenient argument that racists used to cement scoundrel nationalism.

    It's always convenient for those who don't read/understand an out-of-bound language/dialect to argue for its existence as a deterrent to unity!

    Unity for whose definition?

    Perhaps back to archaic tribalism as an unlearned interpreted 非我族类 其心必异(those come from the outside, share no common bond, even when these outsiders speaks same language/dialect)!

    Or unity comes from true feeling for a caring nation under good governance & well defined future!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i strongly believe teo kok seong is a ccp puppet, like carrie lam.

      Delete
    2. I too strongly believe The 3 Blind Mice are WhiteAss puppets, shouting day and night Deformasi Demoncrazy, hehehe

      Delete
  2. The fault lies not so much with the Chinese parents and their preference for their children's primary education because the standard of national type schooling has since 1980-ish became so buruk lah

    What is this KT? Come on, no need to cushion lah.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wakakaka ........ what a simplistic mind! Those MCA and DAP people both also speak Chinese, why are they not united? UMNO, PAS, Bersatu and the majority in PKR all speak Melayu, are they united?

    The 1992 Malaysia Thomas Cup team comprised 4 Bumi 5 Chinese. Did they all study in the same National schools, all brought up speaking the same language? Didn't the whole country of all creed and race all united to support the team during the whole campaign which culminated the team being crowned the CHAMPION?

    It is not the language, it is the heart! The message that count and not the medium, stupid!

    ReplyDelete
  4. If you're greedy, selfish, Hypocrite, how to have unity?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't waste any more time arguing about language in schools. We are Bogged in Mud.

    NOBODY WILL CHANGE THEIR MIND.

    Government should recognize, support and fund ALL school systems: Malay, Chinese, Tamil, International, public, private etc.

    Let the parents decide what's best for their children. The stronger streams will survive. The weaker ones will die out. Guess which ones.

    National Unity? Don't put the pressure on the parents or children to achieve national unity. The first step is to start from the top. Ban political parties that DIVIDE. Ban Parties based on RACE. Ban government policies based on RACE.

    Malaysia TRULY ASIA must speak many Asian languages....not just ONE.

    QUOTE
    Languages of Singapore

    According to the Constitution of Singapore, the national language of Singapore is Malay, which plays a symbolic role, as Malays are constitutionally recognised as the indigenous peoples of Singapore, and it is the government's duty to protect their language and heritage. “The national language shall be the Malay language and shall be in the Roman script […]” (Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, PART XIII) Also according to the constitution, the four commonly used languages of Singapore are English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, with the lingua franca being English.

    The three languages other than English were chosen to correspond with the major ethnic groups present in Singapore at the time: Mandarin had gained status since the introduction of Chinese-medium schools; Malay was deemed the "most obvious choice" for the Malay community; and Tamil for the largest Indian ethnic group in Singapore, in addition to being "the language with the longest history of education in Malaysia and Singapore". In 2009, more than 20 languages were identified as being spoken in Singapore, reflecting a rich linguistic diversity in the city. Singapore's historical roots as a trading settlement gave rise to an influx of foreign traders, and their languages were slowly embedded in Singapore's modern day linguistic repertoire.
    UNQUOTE

    QUOTE
    Singapore has a bilingual education policy, where all students in government schools are taught English as their first language. Students in Primary and Secondary schools also learn a second language called their "Mother Tongue" by the Ministry of Education, where they are either taught Mandarin, Malay, or Tamil. English is the main language of instruction for most subjects, while Mother Tongue is used in Mother Tongue lessons and moral education classes. This is because Singapore's "bilingualism" policy of teaching and learning English and Mother Tongue in primary and secondary schools is viewed as a "cultural ballast" to safeguard Asian cultural identities and values against Western influence.
    UNQUOTE

    ReplyDelete
  6. Let the non-Malays have their one hour per day instructions in their mother tongues so as to maintain their cultural heritage. After all they are living in Malaysia and want to call themselves Malaysians. If they still want to identify themselves by the ethnicities of their immigrant forefathers let them balik kampung.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is the government that identifies them according to their ethnicity, from Day 1, on their Birth Certificates.

      Delete
    2. This is what Singapore is doing, allowing a certain number of hours per day where Mother Tongue is taught.

      But First Things First. Improve the standard of education overall, in the National Schools. At the moment many parents, even Malay ones, have little confidence in them, that is why many send their children to Chinese schools.

      Delete
    3. Who the F*CK r u to say so?

      Bali kampung!

      Mfer, don't forget to pack yr bag first.

      Delete
  7. In CCP-land, the generation that can speak dialects such as Hokkien is literally dying out.
    Dialects are actively discouraged.
    Soon, nobody will be speaking Hokkien or Cantonese in CCP-land.

    In Taiwan, Hokkien in is not used officially, but people are free to speak it, especially the older generation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Old moneyed mfer have u been to Fukien, Kwantung?

      Have u been to yr ancestral village?
      That's if u have one!

      "the generation that can speak dialects such as Hokkien is literally dying out."

      ¡¡¡!!!!

      Fitnah & lies invented by u.

      Mfer, if u have, recently, then u would have know that Hokkien or Cantonese r still been used frequently used amongst the old & young of the locals!

      U want to talk about Taiwan!

      Do u know that there Chinese dialects been forced to extinction by 闽南话 & 普通话, with pockets of Hakka still been spoken.

      Ooop… don't forget to find out how many NATIVE Taiwaneses DONT know anything about their native dialects!

      Free demoNcratic style mah!

      So easy to fart for a well dwelling yellowed katak.

      Delete
    2. taipei mrt n bus one can hear hakka, hokkien n cantonese announcement, in ccp china n malay govt msia, only the respective tuan n imperialist language is allowed.

      Delete
    3. WhiteAss Kisser only know how to suck white cocks and pretends he knows everything...this is a fact and is well known throughout the whole world, haha haha

      If only he had visited Hainan too...

      There's no fool like an old fool, who likes to suck white cocks

      Delete
    4. 犬养mfer, been riding on the City Metro Systems of Xinjiang? Tibet? Inner Mongolia?

      Obviously NOT!

      So what so special about the mrt announcement in Taipei?

      Check those announcements in Taichung, Hualien City, Kaohsiung lah. Same performance as Taipei?

      Wakakakakaka…

      BTW, in certain period of the year, one can even hear Chinese announcements in some Milan metro lines!

      What say/fart have u?

      Delete
    5. apple to apple so taipei vs beijing vs kl.

      that show which capital is imclusive, which is controlled by tuan.

      Delete
    6. Wakakakakaka…

      Apple to apple!!??

      How selective r u, that infamous 犬养mfer!

      A govt, which practices good governance, looks after the destitutes & lower rank locations before the fat cats lepaking around the capital.

      Yr f*cking tuan controlled inclusiveness is just a way that the tuan is looking after that rich electorate.

      Got'ch yr hypocrisy AGAIN, 犬养mfer!

      Delete
    7. Ooop… Taipei is only a provincial capital!

      Urumqi? Lhasa? Hohhot?

      Tell u what - an efficient mass transport system imposes station to station travelling time & stopping duration.

      HK MTR has the fastest station to station stopping time of 1 min. Not even RedDot can achieve that!

      How many languages r the HK MTR announcement?

      How efficient is that Taipei line when it has to make multilingual announcement between station stops?

      Either the distance between stopping stations r long (defeat the mrt purpose) or the travelling speed is slow (again, defeat the mrt purpose)!

      犬养mfer, quick go check with yr 台毒 morons about WHY they didn't learn that mrt basics from their Jap copycat?

      Delete